This invention relates to formation and patterning of a hard mask which is adapted for use in forming holes in an underlying layer, and more particularly to formation of openings in the underlayer, including trench holes. The openings are adapted for providing formation of active semiconductor devices as well as inactive devices including capacitors and resistors, and including structures such as lines/spaces, vias, and contacts.
In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, multiple layers of various materials are formed and patterned. To form the patterns in various layers or in the substrate upon which devices are being formed, photolithographic techniques are frequently used in which a photoresist layer is formed over a layer of material in which or on which features of a semiconductor device are to be fabricated. Then the photoresist is exposed to a master mask and developed to form windows through the photoresist. In additive processes, materials can be plated onto a workpiece or implanted into a workpiece through the windows. In subtractive processes, openings can be formed by etching through the windows into the layers or layers below the photoresist. In the case of etching through the windows to form such openings, high energy plasma etching is employed. The plasma etching process employs highly energetic ions and plasma energized atomic particles to etch through the material exposed at the bottoms of the windows through the photoresist layer.
To remain cost and performance competitive the semiconductor manufacturing industry and the tooling industry are continuously required to develop new processes and new tools for manufacturing semiconductor devices with ever increasing device densities. The increasing device densities are achieved by decreasing the sizes of the features that are produced. This requirement has led to the development of enhanced photolithographic manufacturing processes, capable of providing increased accuracy in the production of features with ever smaller dimensions. However it is difficult to implement such lithographic manufacturing processes. To achieve the shrinking device dimensions, new photolithographic materials, processes and tools are being developed including higher Numerical Aperture (NA) tools. While higher NA tools allow for improved photolithographic resolution, the problem is that there is a reduced depth of focus of aerial images projected onto the photoresist by the photolithographic tool.
Because of the reduced depth of focus, a thinner layer of photoresist is required. As the photoresist becomes thinner and thinner, the problem is that the photoresist becomes less effective as a mask for subsequent dry etch image transfer to the underlying layers including the substrate, i.e. most if not all of the photoresist is etched away during the subsequent pattern transfer process.
As photolithography evolves from larger scale 248 nm exposure to smaller scale 193 nm exposure, a consequent change in the photoresist chemistry has been required. The generation of 193 nm photoactive photoresists are much less resistant to bombardment by highly energetic ions and plasma erosion than previous photoresists designed for 248 nm exposure. Furthermore, increasingly aggressive ground rule targets are required, reducing the available depth of focus and hence the total thickness of the layer of photoresist available for etching.
For example, 0.13 μm technology used a mature 248-nm positive Deep Ultra-violet (DUV) photoresist material. (e.g. UV™ 82 photoresist of Shipley Company, L.L.C., Marlborough, Mass. Rohm & Haas) of at least 470 nm thickness. This photoresist would typically be used to etch an underlying organic AntiReflective Coating (ARC) film consuming approximately 100 nm of the thickness of the photoresist, leaving only the remaining 500 nm to be used to etch an underlying silicon dioxide material. In contrast, 0.11 mm technology employs a much more delicate 193 nm imaging system using argon fluoride (ArF) and photoactive ArF photoresist with a photoresist thickness of only 300-350 nm. Approximately 100 nm of this thinner ArF photoresist is then used to etch a 100 nm ARC coating, leaving only 200-250 nm of more sensitive ArF photoresist for the underlying oxide etch.
The problem is exacerbated at many levels, for example the local interconnect or Metal Contact (MC) level. The minimum spacing between features of a pattern to be exposed such as a bar and a mini-bar is even more susceptible to sputtering than the field area. For aggressive ground-rules such as CMOS devices with 90 nm logic and smaller, it has become increasingly difficult to pattern oxide contacts for the MC level. Due to these constraints, use of intermediate layers of hard mask materials below the photoresist layer is becoming increasingly common in the microelectronics industry. The nature of such hard mask materials dictates that they etch much differently from the underlying film. In the case of tunable ARC (Anti-Reflective Coating) hard mask materials, a separate tool has been required to make an opening through the hard mask layer. For this reason, tunable ARC materials have been developed as a tunable ARC materials hard mask material for etching of silicon dioxide layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,316,167 of Angelopoulos et al. entitled Tunable Vapor Materials as Antireflective Coatings, Hardmasks and as Combined Antireflective Coating/hardmasks and Methods of Fabrication Thereof and Application Thereof describes a lithographic structure and method of fabrication and use thereof having a plurality of layers at least one of which is a an RCH or and RCHX layer which comprises a inorganic material having structural formula R:C:H or R:C:H:X, wherein R is selected from the group of one or more of Si, Ge, B, Sn, Fe, and Ti; and X is selected from the group of one or more of O, N, S, and F. RCH/RCHX layers are useful as hardmask layers, anti-reflection layers and hardmask anti-reflection layers.
The RCH/RCHX layer can be vapor-deposited and patterned by patterning the energy active material and transferring the pattern to the RCH/RCHX layer. However, the Angelopoulos patent does not describe methods of forming openings in the tunable ARC layers produced nor does it suggest use of the tunable ARC layers as a hard mask formed by etching through a photoresist mask to form openings therein.
In Example 5, the patent states as follows: This Example illustrates the ability to pattern the R:C:H:X material with a conventional deep UV photoresist mask using plasma etching. As can be seen in FIG. 8, a halogen or/and fluorocarbon-based chemistry was used in a high-density plasma etcher to delineate 150 nm line-and-space features in a 240 nm thick RCHX film with excellent anisotropy and adequate selectivity of 1.2 with respect to the photoresist. Blanket etch selectivities in excess of 4 with respect to photoresist were observed with less aggressive plasma etches. Owing to the vertical profiles obtainable with minimal etch bias and the excellent etch resistance to common substrate materials such as silicon oxide and silicon nitride (as described in the Example 6), the R:C:H:X material is an excellent candidate for hard mask.
In Example 6, the patent states as follows: This Example shows the excellent etch resistance of the R:C:H:X material to fluorocarbon plasmas used to etch silicon oxide and silicon nitride. The blanket etch rates measured for the RCHX film and silicon oxide for two different plasma chemistries which are summarized in FIG. 9 indicate etch selectivities of ˜7 and ˜13, respectively. The blanket etch rates measured for the RCHX film and silicon nitride and shown in FIG. 9 indicate an etch selectivity greater than 4. This data suggests that the R:C:H:X material possess excellent hard mask characteristics for subsequent etches.
In Example 7, the patent states as follows: The following Example explains an integration scheme using the deposited RCHX film which reduces the need of one material and one process step. The RCHX film in this case replaces the BARC and oxide hardmask layers thus performing the role of a combined ARC and hardmask for the subsequent nitride etch step. The photoresist patterns are reproducibly transferred into the deposited RCHX film using a Cl2 chemistry on a high-density plasma etcher. This is enabled by the reasonably selective and highly anisotropic nature of the etch (FIG. 8). The blanket RCHX film to photoresist selectivity of ˜2 is superior to the conventional BARC to photoresist selectivities of ˜1. This means that compared to the conventional process sequence, more photoresist remains intact going into the next etch step. The pattern is then transferred into the nitride with a fluorocarbon-based plasma since the nitride to deposited RCHX film selectivity is reasonably high.
In Example 8, the patent states as follows: This Example shows the use of the deposited RCHX film as a replacement to conventional bottom ARC in a conventional stack. The process flow is summarized in FIG. 11. The photoresist patterns are transferred into the deposited RCHX film using a Cl2 plasma etch after which the photoresist is ashed. The RCHX feature is transferred into the oxide layer with a fluorocarbon plasma; the low etch rate of the RCHX compared to that of oxygen makes this pattern transfer possible. This inherent selectivity for two different fluorocarbon plasmas is shown in FIG. 9. The remaining process flow is similar to the conventional process flow shown in FIG. 11. When using the RCHX as an ARC, less aggressive etching conditions leading to higher etch selectivities with respect to photoresist can be used because the film will be only ˜90 nm thick. This will prevent the excessive photoresist loss observed in conventional ARC-open etches.
Tunable etching resistant ARC materials have an optical property which is tunable as discussed in the Angelopoulos patent where a tunable index of refraction and extinction coefficient are described which can be optionally graded along the film thickness to match the optical properties of the substrate and the imaging photoresist, but that is not a feature employed in the method of this invention since it is simply the hard mask features which these materials also possess which are of importance in connection with this invention.
U.S. Pat. No, 6,120,697 of Demmin et al. “Method of Etching Using Hydrofluorocarbon Compounds” describes an etching composition comprising:    (A) a hydrofluorocarbon etchant compound having the formula CXHYFZ             wherein: x=3, 4 or 5;        2x≧z≧1y or 1.5y; and        y+z=2x+2; and            (B) a second material, different from the etchant compound, to enhance or modify the plasma etching characteristics of the etchant compound wherein said second material is selected from the group consisting of O2, H2, N2, CH4, He, Ar, and C1-C5 hydrofluorocarbons. The Demmin et al. patent states that examples of materials that can be etched by the HFC etchant compounds include, but are not limited to:     dielectrics such as carbides, borides and suicides of metals or semi-metals, for example, tungsten silicide;     insulators, such as oxides, nitrides of metals or semi-metals, for example, SiO2, Si3N4, silicon oxynitride, BPSG, and fluorosilicate glass;     III-V semiconductor compounds such as indium phosphide;     elemental materials, such as silicon, polysilicon, W, Ti, V, Ge, Si—Ge; and     combinations of two or more thereof.The patent states at Col. 3, line 25 et seq. as follows:
It has been found also that the HFC etchant compounds for use in the present invention exhibit good selectivity in response to intentional variations in plasma etching conditions. More specifically, it has been found that the relatively high hydrogen content of the HFC etchant compounds tends to promote polymerization on the surface of certain materials and not others under certain conditions. This polymerization retards etching, thus resulting in selectivity of the non-polymerized surfaces over the polymerized surfaces.
“As discussed In greater detail in the examples below, tests were conducted to determine the role operating conditions played in the selectivity of the HFC etchant compounds for use in the present invention. For example, it was found that, for HFC-245fa, relatively high bias and power and low pressure tend to increase the selectivity of SiO2 over Si, and relatively low bias and high pressure and power tend to increase the selectivity of SiO2 over Si3N4. For HFC-236, relatively low bias and power and high pressure tend to increase the selectivity of SiO2 over Si, and relatively low pressure and power and medium bias tend to increase the selectivity of SiO2 over Si3N4. Other combinations of operating variables can also be used to impart selectivity over these and other materials as shown in the examples. Additionally, it should be noted that these results are offered only as an indication that selectivity can be achieved by intentionally varying conditions, and should not be construed as an optimization for particular selectivities. Indeed, one skilled in the art should be capable of improving these selectivities as well as other selectivities by optimizing process conditions and the apparatus used.”
Accordingly, significant selectivities of SiO2 over Si and SiO2 over Si3N4, among others, have been achieved by varying operating parameters such as pressure, bias, and power . . . . In a preferred embodiment, the etching process is performed under conditions such that the etch ratios of SiO2 over Si and/or SiO2 over Si3N4 are no less than about 2:1, even more preferably no less than about 5:1, and still more preferably no less than about 7:1.
In current state of the art of 193 nm lithography, an organic ARC film is etched 1:1 with photoresist, and the silicon oxide selectivity to photoresist is 3:1 or so. Thus the overall effective selectivity is 3:1, so that 100 nm of photoresist is able to pattern a thickness of only 300 nm of silicon oxide (also known as oxide). We have found that tunable ARC materials are an excellent choice, since tunable ARC materials are the only commonly available silicon materials which sputter less readily than silicon oxide. The “tunability” of the material of the tunable etch resistant ARC material referred to herein does not pertain to this invention; but it has to do with an optical property of these materials when they are used as an anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer for patterning using the ARC optical characteristics without a mask. Here the tunable ARC layers are used simply as hard masks which are employed for the highly selective etching characteristics thereof when employed in connection with etching a dielectric such as silicon dioxide in accordance with this invention.
FIG. 1A illustrates a problem of loss of critical dimension encountered when processing with a conventional hard mask material. FIG. 1A shows a schematic sectional view of a pair of hypothetical structures 8 composed of a conventional hard mask material, e.g. silicon nitride (Si3N4) or polysilicon have been formed by etching through a planar layer of the hard mask material. Structures 8 have been patterned with a mask (not shown for convenience of illustration) which had been formed over the planar layer of the hard mask material for the intended purpose of providing an opening at the base of the structures 8 with a critical dimension (CD).
FIG. 1A shows that as a result of plasma etching of either silicon nitride or polysilicon features such features sputter too readily, resulting in severe mask faceting manifested by the tapered (sloping) sidewalls TSW and an excessively wide gap between the structures 8 which is wider by the error value “δ” than the CD value so that there has been a loss of the Critical Dimension caused by widening of the gap at the base of the structures 8. This undesirable widening of the gap between the structures 8 has been caused by the sputtering causing unwanted etching of the sidewalls of the structures 8, which has produced the faceting, Thus, the CD value has been increased by the error value “δ” due to formation of tapered sidewalls TSW with the bottoms thereof spaced by CD+“δ”, whereas the original spacing between the bottoms of the structures 8 would have been the critical dimension CD, if it were not for the unwanted faceting illustrated in FIG. 1A. This growth in the CD, especially at the top of the feature, can greatly exacerbate short circuiting between closely packed structures, and is a leading cause of failure in device manufacture.
FIG. 1B shows that for tunable ARC materials indicated by structures 9 (patterned with the same original mask as the structures 8 of FIG. 1A) there are vertical sidewalls VSW (below the tapered upper walls TUW) that maintain spacing with the original CD value of the mask (not shown) at the bottom of the sidewalls of the structures 9 which are spaced by the original CD value. This enhanced result has been achieved since tunable ARC materials 9 are more resistant to sputtering during plasma etching. Tunable ARC materials are a suitable replacement not only for silicon nitride and polysilicon hard mask layers but are also suitable replacement for organic ARC materials employed with a single layer resist.
FIG. 1B shows that for tunable ARC materials indicated by structures 9 (patterned with the same original mask as the structures 8 of FIG. 1A) there are vertical sidewalls VSW below the tapered upper walls TUW that maintain spacing with the original CD value of the mask (not shown) at the bottom of the sidewalls of the structures 9, which are spaced by the original CD value. This enhanced result has been achieved since tunable ARC materials 9 are more resistant to sputtering during plasma etching. Tunable ARC materials are a suitable replacement, not only for a silicon nitride and polysilicon hard mask layer, but are also a suitable replacement for organic ARC materials employed with a single layer resist.
In addition to incompatibilities of materials, the chlorine based etch processes employ fundamentally different etch chamber designs, as described in more detail below. In fact, the erosion damage caused by chlorine in a fluorine chemistry etching chamber is so severe that even photoresist which had been previously exposed to a chlorine plasma is disallowed in dielectric chambers, since the photoresist has been found to have absorbed significant levels of chlorine radicals which are released during the fluorine chemistry etching process.
FIGS. 2A-2E illustrate the problems of a process flow for a process using chlorine for etching openings in a hard mask layer HM on a device 10. FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the process flow of the steps illustrated by FIGS. 2A-2E.
In FIG. 2A, a device 10, hereinafter referred to as Work In Process (WIP) 10, is shown with a base layer 12 composed of a material such as silicon, SOI, a dielectric, polysilicon or the like, upon which a dielectric layer 14, e.g silicon oxide, has been formed in accordance with step 70 in FIG. 3.
In step 71, shown in FIG. 3, form a hard mask layer HM over the dielectric layer 14. The hard mask layer HM is composed of an inorganic material (e.g. an RCH or an RCHX material comprising a tunable ARC).
In step 72, FIG. 3, form a photoresist mask PR with at least one window 20 therethrough over the hard mask layer HM using a lithographic printing process, as will be well understood by those skilled in the art of photolithography.
Referring to FIG. 2B, the WIP 10 of FIG. 2A is shown after step 73 in FIG. 3 of using a chlorine (Cl2) etching process to form an opening 22 completely through the hard mask layer HM of FIG. 2A to the bottom thereof, directly below the window 20 through mask PR exposing the top surface of the dielectric layer 14. Thus, as the result of step 73, the hard mask layer HM has been transformed into a hard mask HM′ with the opening 22 therethrough.
The step 73 is performed in a state of the art chamber such as a conventional processing chamber lined with quartz, or other lining materials compatible for use with a chlorine plasma process, which is referred to hereinafter as a “polysilicon” processing chamber.
Plasma etching chambers used are preferably capacitively coupled (single and multiple frequency) plasma etch chambers inductively or resonantly coupled plasma etch chambers. A state of the art chlorine gas (Cl2) plasma etching process employs chamber liners resistant to the Cl2 process, i.e. quartz, etc. There is a low inherent wafer bias (<200V D.C.) with the additional features of a low wattage power supply; a low voltage e-chuck (often bipolar); a low anode/cathode ratio; and a medium to high density plasma source. In addition there is a low level of polymerization during the etching process with the additional feature of little to no polymer control (i.e. heated surfaces, integrated cleans). An example of a commercially available plasma etching system suitable for use for etching the opening 22 through hard mask layer HM with a chlorine gas plasma using the chlorine etch process is the Transformer Coupled Plasma type of system often referred to as “inductively coupled plasma”. In a TCP system power is applied to both the top and bottom electrodes in the etch chamber using different power sources in TCP, and the residence time of electrons in the plasma is typically longer, resulting in more collisions and more Ion generation resulting in increased ion density. Electrodes used in TCP can vary and can include coils and the like. TCP is well known in the art, and equipment which utilizes TCP, e.g. the Lam TCP® 9400,-series of high-density, polysilicon etching systems are commercially available.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,631 of Holland et al. entitled “Dry Etching of Transparent Electrodes in a Low Pressure Plasma Reactor” describes an example of use of a Lam TCP® 9400 system U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,979 of Patrick et al. entitled “Methods for Reducing Plasma-induced Charging Damage” describes an example of use of a Lam TCP® 9600 system shows and describes a simplified plasma reactor with a TCP™ coil. In the case of both the Holland et al. and the Patrick et al. patents “ . . . the source etchant gases may include, for example, HBr, HCl, HI, Br2, I2 and/or Cl2, or a mixture thereof. An additive, such as oxygen may be introduced and is believed to enhance the selectivity of ITO to other layers such as glass, photoresist, or silicon nitride.” An appropriate lining material for chlorine is quartz. Other lining materials compatible for use with a chlorine plasma process are aluminum dioxide (Al2O3) and yttrium oxide (Y2O3).
Note that chlorine gas is generally not selective to photoresist (since there is no polymerization), and hence the material of hard mask HM etches only approximately as fast as the photoresist PR, limiting the thickness of the hard mask HM (in the 193 nm case) to approximately 200 nm. An inorganic tunable ARC type material film can be employed to form a hard mask HM′ replacing the organic ARC material. Note that while the thickness of the photoresist would be reduced by the etching process, that is not shown for convenience of illustration.
Referring to FIG. 2C, the WIP 10 of FIG. 2B is shown after step 74 in FIG. 3 which comprises stripping the mask PR from the surface of the hard mask HM′ in order to avoid chlorine cross-contamination, because the hard mask layer HM′ was formed by etching in a chlorine plasma with the photoresist PR used as a mask. As stated above the erosion from chlorine is so severe that even the photoresist PR that has been exposed to chlorine is disallowed in dielectric chambers, since the photoresist PR has absorbed significant levels of incompatible chlorine radicals. Thus, step 74 is performed in a strip chamber which may be integrated with the etching of the hard mask layer HM to form mask HM′, i.e. the hard mask etch step is followed immediately by a step of stripping away the photoresist PR from the surface of the WIP 10 in the same chamber, without exposure to the atmosphere.
Referring to FIG. 2D, the WIP 10 of FIG. 2C is shown after step 75 in FIG. 3 after the dielectric 14 has been etched in a fluorocarbon plasma in a fluorocarbon etching chamber using the hard mask HM′ to pattern the dielectric layer 14. In this fluorocarbon plasma etching step, the plasma extends down through to the bottom of hard mask opening 22 in mask HM′ where it reaches the exposed surface of the dielectric layer 14 to form an opening 32 through dielectric layer 14 down to expose the surface of base layer 12. The fluorocarbon plasma etching of step 75 is performed in a fluorocarbon processing chamber. Thus, because of the intermediate chlorine etching process, there is a cumbersome manufacturing burden of moving the WIP to a third processing chambers from step 73 to step 74 to step 75.
The fluorocarbon etching chamber is lined with non-quartz, silicon, ceramic, etc. unlike the polysilicon processing chamber which is lined with a material such as quartz. Examples of suitable commercially available plasma etching chambers are as follows: TEL85 DRM, TEL SCCM, Lam XL, Lam Exelan®, Applied Materials eMAX, Applied Materials IPS, Applied Materials P2K. There is a high wafer bias typically greater than a 200V D.C. bias for a fluorinated process, and less than 100V D.C. bias for chlorine and a lower density plasma source.
Referring to FIG. 2E, the WIP 10 of FIG. 2D is shown after step 76 in which the optional step of stripping away the hard mask HM′ from the WIP 10 has been performed.